The Rangers Newest Autograph Craze (And Hamilton's Reminder of His Power Too)

Today was our first day to go see the Rangers! It started of course with batting practice (BP) at 10 AM. Allow me to introduce you to the Rangers newest craze for autograph collectors...

I obviously wasn't shy to bring out the camera whenever he was around either...HA! I too am hoping to land his autograph (got REAL close twice, but haven't landed it just yet. Plan to before the week is over though).

Vladimir Guerrero appears to be a quiet fella who comes to play. He tends to keep to himself, but entertains a smile when the other guys joke with him -- yet doesn't seem to initiate the jokes. He was fun to watch hit the ball -- obviously.

Though I wasn't able to get a Vlad autograph this morning at BP, I did land several other autographs: (cards) Endy Chavez, Josh Hamilton, Matt Harrison, & Justin Smoak; (pictures) Michael Young, Scott Feldman, CJ Wilson, & Neftali Feliz; and (jersey) Josh Hamilton.

Pretty much BP was the highlight of the day, because the game didn't go as well...

...but of course, Vlad still kept our attention...

Vlad wasn't too impressive from the plate today. Well I guess I'm expecting homeruns each time he is up. He ended up 1 for 3 with a double and run scored. Bless his heart, it hurts me to watch him have to run -- he just looks so awkward...he just seems like he has two long tree trunks for legs -- great for powering a ball over the outfield wall, but difficult to hussle around the base-path with.

Josh Hamilton, however, had a superb day from the plate! I liked to think it was because I got to interact with him a few times for autographs today, but in actuality it was credited to it being his young daughter's 9th birthday. Apparently this morning at breakfast Josh promised his daughter that he'd hit her a homerun for her birthday -- and he is apparently the type of guy that likes to take care of business as soon as possible as her blasted a 2-run homer in his first plate appearance in first inning. Unfortunately, that was the last lead the Rangers would have all game. Hamilton unloaded a double in his second plate appearance, but as we all know, baseball is a team sport, so Josh was not able to carry the team on his own. The Rangers ended up losing the game 9-3. It was a poor showing by the pitching squad, and a lack of offense coming from the bats. Still, I think it's important to note that today's Ranger's squad was a split team, as half the team was in another part of town playing the Los Angeles Dodgers team. With this being the case, having to split our offensive bats and pitchers between two games doesn't allow a coaching staff all his weapons, so we're hoping tomorrow's game will have a better ending.

I must say one of my highlights of the day was finding one of my new "favorites". I have to say I like finding the young talent and following them. In the past my "boyfriends" have been Brandon Boggs and Julio Borbon, both of which I still love and root for on a daily basis. One of my newest young favorites actually got the start at second base today in the game we watched. [Note: We just got word this morning that Ian Kinsler is out for at least a week with a high ankle sprain...this stinks because it means we won't get to see him play this week we are here, and he probably won't be out at BP much with his injury keeping him out of much intense practice]

His name is Marcus Lemon...he is 21 years old, and has the most beautiful eyes and smile! HA!

I told him I thought he has the prettiest eyes when I asked him if he'd take a picture with me...HA! I don't think any of these pictures above do his eyes and smile justice...so you can check his headshot out here on his roster page on the Frisco Roughriders website.

We will be heading back out to Rangers BP in the morning and then to the evening game tomorrow night against the San Francisco Giants. Here's to hoping for a little warmer weather (as it was chilly today in the shade and when the wind blew through -- highs today were mid to high 60s...which is below normal for this time of year in Phoenix) tomorrow and a win! And a Vlad autograph wouldn't be too bad either...HA!

It Was a Party on I-10

After waking up to our hotel room smelling strongly of garlic bread, we decided that was our sign to get out of El Paso! So the journey across the boring southern part of New Mexico and then up through Arizona to Phoenix began.

After entering the Arizona border and passing The Thing we were coming over a hill and noticed Benton, Arizona up ahead about 3 miles, but closer ahead of us was traffic at a complete stand still. Both the westbound lanes of I-10 heading into Benton were completely stopped. So we pulled up behind the pickup truck ahead of us, the semi-truck beside us, and shifted into park. Shortly there after we noticed everyone else around us getting out of their cars, getting food and drinks out of their coolers, getting on cell phones, etc. After about 10 minutes of not moving, we decided to turn off the car like everyone else. We decided to join the "party" and got out of the car. We learned that the family "parked" in front of us was from Odessa and they had two dogs they let out to play, along with three kids. Behind us was a gentleman who was Arizona born and raised, but has a brother who lives in Houston, so he asked what part of Texas we were from. We took some pictures of all the traffic completely stopped and all the people out wondering around by their cars, but I will have to upload them and post them later on. It was interesting being stopped and parked on an interstate.

Turns out there had been a terrible single car accident with the car rolling. A helicopter had to air-lift some people to the hospital apparently, and one individual was dead on the scene. Once they finally started letting the traffic get by on the far shoulder, you could see the highway patrol holding up the white sheet to block the view of the body on the ground. Yikes...

So after a 45 minute delay, we eventually got into Phoenix this even around 6 PM (mountain time zone). We were pleased with the neighborhood and environment our hotel this year was in -- it was cheaper than the one last year, though nicer, AND it's directly across the street from a sports card shop -- PERFECT for being here in town to get autographs...HA!; however, when we got to the hotel, they informed us that they did not have our room clean yet. Rather surprised seeings how it was 6 PM, but whatever. So they allowed us to go ahead and go move our luggage into the room and then we'd go get dinner and come back and it should be clean. So, after moving our stuff in we traveled up and down the neighboring streets to see what restaurants and fast food places are around. We ended up getting Chili's for dinner and then returned to the hotel 1.5 hours late to find our room still hadn't been cleaned.

So now we are in another room, which HAS been cleaned. Now we are are ready for bed at 11:35 PM, mountain time.

The cool thing is we will be going to sleep in the mountain time zone, but waking up in the pacific time zone -- thank you day light savings time...HA! It's because Arizona does not follow day light savings, so when the other states are all springing forward an hour tonight, we in Arizona jump time zones! Pretty neat how that works ,huh?! ;)

Round II -- Spring Training Here We Come!

So we're at it again! We have begun our second roadtrip to Phoenix to see the Texas Rangers and other teams in the Cactus League duke it out in spring training competition! Of course, one of the best parts is going to batting practices (BP) in the mornings and getting autographs. One plus on this year is we were able to begin the trip a day earlier, as my friend (who is a teacher) works in a school district which had the Friday before their spring break off (nice, huh?! Making any other teachers jealous!?!?). So I went ahead and requested the day off from my job and we got a day earlier start this year!



So, just as last year, we are breaking up the 17 hour drive, by staying the first night in El Paso, Texas. That made for a 10.5 hour drive for today (yes, folks, you can drive for 10 hours and still be in one state...Texas is THAT big)! So here we are safe and sound in good ol' El Paso, Texas. After 10+ hours of this old body riding in a car, I'm sore and wornout, so tonight's entry is going to be shorter; however, I thought I'd end it with some brief "points" so far from our trip...

• Gasoline is sure a lot higher today than it was a year ago. We pulled up our records/budget from last years trip and the most we paid for gasoline last year was $2.09 a gallon in Benton, Arizona. So far today, we've paid prices from $2.61, up to $2.79 a gallon. Yikes...good thing we are getting two of our nights in hotels free from credit card points!


• I've decided that the Murphy's gas station by the "new" Super Walmart in Abilene IS officially the windest place in all of Abilene. I was strongly beginning to believe this theory when I was there at homecoming, but today's trip sealed the deal.


• I think State Troopers and the Border Patrol switch shifts from Friday's to Saturdays. Last year when we made the trip to El Paso on a Saturday we only saw a few state troopers along the way and more border patrol than I could count on my fingers and toes. Today, with the trip being on a Friday, we saw 14 hundred state troopers and the only border patrol we saw were at the check point station. This was kind of sad, as last year seeing all the border patrol was a bit of entertainment, as we liked watching for them and their trucks hidden down in the ditches. It was like we were anxiously awaiting to see a truck racing through the desert chasing a group of illegals or something. Sure, it never happened, but I'm pretty sure the anticipation of it helped a boring trip move along.
• I'm pretty sure the lack of the border patrol this year also took some of the excitement out of our large lettering of "JUAREZ BOUND" which we had chalked on the back window of our vehicle. Oh well...

Goodnight, from El Paso, and the next time I write, it should be from sunny Phoenix, Arizona! As for me, I think my body (which believes it's after 10 PM, even though it's only 9 PM here) is ready to get to bed. As for my friend, yeah, she's already out cold! HA!

My Autographs

As promised, here is some information on the autographs I got while at Spring Training. I will start by saying the types of "merchandise" that I took to get signed included a white Rangers T-Shirt (which you've seen in pictures previously on this blog), some baseballs, some baseball cards, and two baseballs a friend got and asked for me to try to get signed for her boys. I can say that on those two baseballs for my friend's boys I got multiple autographs: Ball #1 -- Ian Kinsler, Michael Young, Elvis Andrus, & Josh Hamilton; Ball #2 -- Kevin Millwood, Scott Feldman, David Murphy, Elvis Andrus, & Josh Hamilton.

Now, as for the autographs for myself, I have listed below all the players on the Rangers 40-Man Roster and the Non-Roster Invites that were also at the Ranger's Spring Training (trying out for spots on the 40-Man Roster). You'll see the names below listed by position and which list (i.e. roster or non-roster). The number in parenthesis after their name is my own ranking system based on the level of difficulty I found it to be for getting that specific players autograph (taking into consideration batting practice signing opportunities and game signing opportunities). A (1) means I found them incredibly hard to get an autograph from (meaning most likely I didn't get one from them), and a (10) meaning they were giving away autographs like hot cakes. And finally you'll see listed after that number what (if anything) I got their autograph on.

Coaches
Ron Washington (5) – t-shirt
Gary Pettis (4) – baseball
Dave Anderson (N/A – never saw him)
Mike Maddox (1 – I don’t think I saw him sign for a single person)

40-Man Roster Players:
Pitchers
Joaquin Benoit (N/A -- injured)
Willie Eyre (N/A – never saw him)
Scott Feldman (8) – t-shirt
Frank Francisco (N/A – never saw him)
Matt Harrison (9) – t-shirt
Tommy Hunter (N/A – never saw him)
Eric Hurley (N/A -- injured)
Warner Madrigal (N/A – never saw him)
Brandon McCarthy (7) – card
Luis Mendoza (9) – t-shirt, card
Kevin Millwood (9) – t-shirt
Dustin Nippert (7) – t-shirt
Vicente Padilla (N/A – never saw him)
Josh Rupe (N/A – never saw him)
C.J. Wilson (8) – t-shirt, baseball

Catchers
Max Ramirez (N/A – at WBC)
Jarrod Saltalamacchia (7) – t-shirt
Taylor Teagarden (8) – card

Infielders
Joaquin Arias (1 – I don’t think I saw him sign for a single person)
Hank Blalock (3) – t-shirt
Chris Davis (8) – t-shirt, card
Ian Kinsler (7) – t-shirt
Travis Metcalf (N/A – never saw him)
Michael Young (6)

Outfielders
Brandon Boggs (6) – t-shirt, card
Marlon Byrd (1 – I don’t think I saw him sign for a single person)
Frank Catalanotto (N/A – saw him but never attempted to get autograph)
Nelson Cruz (1 – I don’t think I saw him sign for a single person)
Josh Hamilton (8 – this man had more people following him everywhere he went than any other player, but whenever he would start signing, he would sign for hours if needed till he signed everything everyone had for him to sign…a GREAT guy!) 2 cards
David Murphy (8)

Non-Roster Invites to Spring Training:
Pitchers
Kris Benson (8) – t-shirt
Casey Daigle (N/A – never saw him)
Brendan Donnelly (N/A – never saw him)
Neftali Feliz (5)
Jimmy Gobble (N/A – never saw him)
Brian Gordon (N/A – never saw him)
Eddie Guardado (7) – t-shirt, baseball
Derek Holland (9) – t-shirt, baseball
Jason Jennings (8) – t-shirt
Doug Mathis (8) – baseball
Elizardo Ramirez (N/A – saw him but never attempted to get autograph)
Joe Torres (N/A – never saw him)
Derrick Turnbow (N/A – never saw him)

Catchers
Emerson Frostad (9) – card
Adam Melhuse (N/A – saw him but never attempted to get autograph)
Manuel Pina (N/A – never saw him)
Kevin Richardson (N/A -- injured)

Infielders
Elvis Andrus (9) – t-shirt, on 2 cards
Justin Smoak (9) – t-shirt, baseball
Omar Vizquel (2 – I tried to get this man so many times!! I only saw him sign like three times the whole week, and each time was only a few autographs)

Outfielders
Andruw Jones (3) – card

The ones I'd still really like to get are:
Omar Vizquel; Mike Maddox; Joaquin Benoit; Vicente Padilla; Joaquin Arias; Marlon Byrd; Nelson Cruz; & Neftali Feliz

We'll see...who knows what autographs the season might still have in store for me! ;)

4 in a Row

Well, Texas is a little grand-er once again, as we have been reunited with the state and our fellow Texans. -- we know they all missed us! ;)

We arrived safely into El Paso, Texas this evening after stopping for the Rangers vs. Rockies game in Tucson, AZ on the way back home. It was a good game, in which the Rangers pulled out yet another win 11 - 5, which makes for 4 in a row! See, I told you we are their lucky charm! Don't worry boys, we'll be there for opening day too! =)

I must say, Nelson Cruz batting clean-up is turning out alright afterall. On Wednesday he powered a 3-run homerun during the first inning; had the day off on Thursday; and then today hit a 2-run homerun in the first inning. Way to go buddy! Hopefully he will be able to provide some protectin for Hamilton batting right before him!

Okay, time to get to bed, as tomorrow is the longer "half" of our trip (El Paso to Dallas), plus we'll lose another hour on the drive, so that doesn't help much...HA!

It Was Our Josh Hamilton Day

This evening I've been wornout and was busy on the internet preparing for tomorrow. Tomorrow morning we head out of Phoenix, but we decided today, when we noticed that Rangers play tomorrow at 1 PM against the Colorado Rockies at the Rockies stadium, which just so happens to be in Tucson -- which is exactly where we travel through on our way to El Paso. Soooo....

We are going to catch one more Rangers game before getting back to Texas. So tonight I had to book our hotel room for El Paso tomorrow night, write up directions....write up directions to the Rockies stadium...and plan for our travel through Tucson to figure out time it will take to arrive there and what time we'd need to leave Phoenix in the morning. Now I'm just wornout and not really interested in typing much up, so I didn't send in a guest blog to the Dallas Morning News tonight, and as for this blog, it's going to be short and sweet...

Batting practice was good. Once again, since it was a home game today at 1 PM, getting autographs at batting practice lasted for a little longer than yesterday. Today my friend and I got us a few Josh Hamilton autographs -- that was our big "scores" from BP. Josh is such a great guy! He is so generous with his time and signing for the TONS of fans that follow him around everywhere at BP.

As for the game, the Rangers pulled it out, but the starting pitching by Kris Benson looked shaky in the first inning, as he gave up 4 runs. We felt we might have a bleak chance at coming back, as today we had several of our "big bats" out of the line-up (Hamilton, Kinsler, & Cruz did not play), but we pulled it out, driving in 6 runs in one inning! Blaylock played in his first game (as actually playing offense and defense...as he played third while Young DHed)....but he didn't do anything at the plate and got him an error on the field....and then went out of the game injured when he flipped over the railing and into the Athletics dugout when going after a foul-ball. Hmmm, wonder if this will put good ol' Hank on the DL -- he seems more comfortable there than in the game nowadays it seems.

Our time in Phoenix as been loads of fun! We each got a load of autographs and learned so much about the players. I love noting personality aspects of the guys, which you can get from the interactions you get with them at BP since you are right there with them! I hope to comment more about the players individually in the near future, but that won't be tonight, as I'm exhausted.

I'm going to end with some more pictures from today.




Above is just some of my autographs. On this t-shirt I got:

Ian Kinsler
Oliver Perez
Jason Jennings
Kevin Millwood
Eddie Guardado
Scott Feldman
Chris Davis
Ron Washington
Kris Benson
Julio Borbon
Hank Blaylock
Dustin Nippert
Elvis Andrus
Luis Mendoza
C.J. Wilson
Greg Golson
Matt Harrison
Jarrod Saltalamacchia
German Duran
Justin Smoak
Derek Holland
Brandon Boggs


David Murphy (OF) signing after he exited the game today.

Josh Hamilton (OF) signing at batting practice.

Hamilton, Murphy, and Cruz waiting for the hitting coaches to get over to the batting cages so they are work on hitting.

Some of the guys waiting around on their turn to hit.

Back-to-Back Wins: We Are the Rangers Lucky Charm!

Today was to be a lot like yesterday (Rangers batting practice in the morning, and then Rangers game at 1 PM), but little did we know it would turn out so similar...

Tuesday's Rangers game -- the starting pitching shut-out the opposition in the first four innings. The Rangers offense put 4 runs on the board in the first inning. The Rangers bats continued to register points on the board throughout the game, and the pitching and defense limited the other teams score. The Rangers pulled out a great offensive win!

Wednesday's Rangers game -- the starting pitching shut-out the opposition in the first four innings. The Rangers offense put 4 runs on the board in the first inning. The Rangers bats continued to register points on the board throughout the game, and the pitching and defense limited the other teams score. The Rangers pulled out a great offensive win!

[You can stop trying to find the differences between the two days games, there isn't any...I copied/pasted]

About the only real difference for my friend and myself was that we sat in chairs along the 1st base line on Tuesday at the Ranger's stadium, and on Wed. we were at the Padres stadium and we bought lawn seats, so we were in the right field grassy area. It was nice, just chilling out on a sheet on some sweet grass watching the game while catching some rays! It was one of those settings you couldn't help but text message your fellow coworkers and say, "Aren't you jealous that you're at work slaving away and I'm laid out sun-bathing in 90 degree weather while watching the home-town boys beat-up on their opponent?!" HA HA!



Something that nice to see the past two games has been how the starting pitching has come out strong to start the game! Yes, I am still talking about the Rangers. Sure, it's been helpful that our explosive offensive is still around this year, but at the same time, to get 4 scoreless opening innings out of the pitches two days in a row is something to be excited about if you're a Rangers fan! To the right you'll see Scott Feldman (Tuesday's starting pitcher who got the win and held the Rangers to no runs and only 4 hits in his first 4 innings of work yesterday), who I got his autograph today during batting practice (BP). A real nice fella, very willing to sign for the fans.


Today's starting pitcher, who registered the win was Brandon McCarthy, who was taken out of the game after 4 innings of hit-less and scoreless pitching! Maybe I can find McCarthy around BP tomorrow and get his autograph and congratulate him as well!

One of the biggest parts of Spring Training is seeing what the young arms and bats are capable of, in order to see who should fill the last few spots on the teams roster, or who will be capable of "hanging" in the "bigs" should injuries require someone to be brought up. Below is some of the young kids that are being looked at heavily by the Rangers coaches and staff...


[Top -- Justin Smoak (1B); Bottom -- Elvis Andrus (SS)]

Elvis has already "made" the big league squad, as he was the one they moved veteran Michael Young to third base in order to make room for Elvis at shortstop. Elvis seems like a real likeable kid. One thing I can say about his autograph though is that it is really pretty and "perfect"...however, you would NEVER know what it says...I honestly don't even know if it's in English, as he is from Venezuela, but I think since he is still such a young one, and not used to having to sign so often yet, he will soon learn he can't make it so "perfect" as it takes a lot of time for an autograph....HA! But like I said, it's real "pretty" and fun to watch him sign it, as he has it down to an art.




[Top -- Neftali Feliz (P); Bottom -- Derek Holland (P)]

These two young arms are supposed to be some of the most important up-and-rising pitchers for the Rangers bullpen. I've yet to get Feliz's autograph, as I haven't seen him, but from afar while at BP (and he was in the middle of drills), but he is the stud they talk about that can throw in the 100 mphs with no sweat...HA! He did pitch a couple innings in the game today, and actually wasn't all that impressive from what we saw, but I'm sure he just had an off day. However, Mr. Holland and I interacted on a couple occassions of the past two days for autographs. Real nice young kid (looks like he's like 16...HA!).

I think one of my favorite parts about the young kids is just to see/sense their enthusiasm about being associated with the "big leaguers" and seeing them light up when people want their autographs! HA! They are always SOOOO willing to sign autographs! I've already gotten 3 of Elvis' and 2 Smoak's. Sometimes the "bigger" guys you can tell aren't interested in signing so they'll say something like, "gotta run, I'll catch you when I'm finished" and sometimes they will come back when they are finished and sometimes not. But with the younger guys, it seems like they just don't know how to say no (which is quite possible...they'll learn...HA), but like Justin Smoak...I've NEVER seen him turn down someone who asked for an autograph, and you can tell he might be on his way to another batting cage or pitching drill, but he will still sign real quick for everyone standing there asking. Great guy.



[Top -- Kevin Millwood (P); Bottom -- Jarrod Saltalamacchia (C)]

Then of course there are the "big leaguers" at Spring Training too...and many of them are great for signing too (honestly, just about everyone on the Rangers squad is pretty easy to get a signature from...they are all so generous with their time and willingness to interact with their fans). Just about everyone of the pitchers are great about signing -- Millwood included. Salty has been one that has been very generous with his time and signing as well, but he's always got quite a crowd when he's signing, so pretty much only one autograph is typically what you'll be able to get from him, just because there are so many people.

This might sound funny, but when I came into Rangers Spring Training there was one player I really wanted to make sure to get an autograph from, and that's probably just because I really enjoyed his play last year for the team -- Brandon Boggs. It saddens me to know he's going to be so far down on the depth chart with our overload of outfielders, but I enjoyed hearing a report the other day that called him one of the most underrated Ranger players, and quite possibly one of (if not the best) defensive outfielders on the team. I kept an eye on him at BP on Tuesday, but he never seemed to be signing...I was not going to leave this week without getting his autograph though...HA! So then at the game, he was signing along the 1st base line for fans before the game, and my friend and I were the next ones for him to sign for and he said, "Sorry, I've got to get in" so my friend asked "When could we get you next?" He said, "I don't know, maybe after the game." And the man held his promise (for which we thanked him)! To the left you'll see Boggs signing after the game on Tuesday. The other player signing in the picture is Emerson Frostad (C) -- speaking of players who are in an overpopulated position on the Rangers squad, so they fall WAY down on the depth chart list...HA!

As you can tell, the up-close-and-personal setting that Rangers Spring Training offers is what makes it so exciting! The autographs are so fun, because each day you wonder who you might be able to get! Tomorrow will be our last day of baseball fun. Once again it will start with Rangers BP at 10 AM and then Rangers game at 1 PM. Let's hope for another great day of autographs and a big win in the afternoon!

Oh, and also, I got posted as a guest blogger on the Rangers blog of the Dallas Morning News website. You can see my post about yesterdays events here and then today's events here.